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Wednesday, August 01, 2007

The Exchange - Alternative Reality Gaming

The Exchange - Alternative Reality Gaming

I'm kinda torn by this.

On the one hand I see it as just another way to kill time in a useless and frivolous "entertainment pursuit" as if the world, and America especially, is not already full of such silly, distracting, and pointless endeavors.On the other hand it doesn't take much foresight to realize the enormous potential that something like this might have in using gaming and a real world platform to practice and master Real World Skills if the proper Transferable Skills Simulations could be developed.

This could be a practical method of teaching Real World Skills in the real world through a gaming system and scenario.

At the very least amateur skills could be learned, practiced, and developed, or the gaming scenario at the very least designed in such a way as to require or encourage players to learn or make use of some real world skill in order to compete successfully in the game.

As for Wargaming of various kinds this would be a perfect model, under controlled circumstances, for Real World military training scenarios (without the need for separate and expensive training centers - interacting with civilians in civilian areas while simultaneously trying to guard against mock terror attacks and also trying to avoid accidental or saboteur gamejacking), SWAT training, medical service training, manhunting, security, espionage, and practically anything of a civil service nature. But it could also be easily extended to practically any profession, as a form of Interactive Training Role-play. It could also easily be employed to develop scenarios to teach hobbies or to train someone for personal avocations, like Vadding.

It is filled with interesting and practically unlimited potential and if combined with Virtual Reality and incorporated into Real World Training scenarios certainly would be an interesting way to learn new skills. It might even be successfully employed as a general primary and secondary Educational Technique.

I'm gonna think more on the matter and how I might use this, as well as how it might be best interwoven into more ordinary Electronic Video and Computer games and who it might be best combined with Virtual Reality projects.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

It seems to me that this is merely Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP) with alternate media inputs, on a larger scale.Second, it is extremely time-intensive, given that this unfolds in real time. This eats free time more than blogging or a standard MMORPG.Third, whatever value there may be in transferable skills embedded in such a format, is much better spent in other venues if the ultimate goal is skills learning. [Example: Classes. At the local community college.]Fourth, transferable skills are no longer theory; this is a proven methodology. Google the term. The earliest and more primitive example was giving secretary typists materials to transcribe and require a change in paragraphing or format [back in the day before cut-and-paste, when we used real typewriters], and then testing them on the topic covered in the paper. Numerous studies show passive learning from typing to have been effective enough that the typists could actually pass final exams, etc. Sure, one can argue that this is passive learning by kinesthetics vice transferable skills per se... but the format, the precursor, is there, just as the Gutenburg press is the precursor for today's internet.

I'm not necessarily opposed to it... but it seems like a real time hog.

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